Motivation is like a shower. You need it every day.

Operation resume day 18 completed. Treat for finishing 18 days: new pair of earrings

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing -- that's why we recommend it daily." - Zig Ziglar

In my ongoing quest to figure out how to resume and stay in the healthy-eating game, I think about motivation a lot. When my motivation is high, eating on my food plan is easy.

And when do I always fall off? When my motivation sinks low.

This used to bother me. Oh, come on! I got myself all inspired and worked up yesterday. I meditated and listened to some Susan Peirce Thompson videos and prepped my meals and talked with a buddy. Why did I wake up this morning feel unmotivated?? Why do I have to keep doing all these things all over again today? Why doesn't the motivation just stick?

Then I stopped to get gas for my car yesterday and while waiting for the tank to refill, I started thinking about how gas for my car is just like motivation for me. You fill it up, it gets you somewhere, you have to refill it occasionally.

I never complain about having to refill my gas tank (well, sometimes when the price is ghastly high). 

I never start saying, "oh come on, I just filled up the gas tank a week ago! Why do I have to keep doing this every few days or weeks???!!!" No. It's just accepted that the gas will get used up and I'll need more. 

That's pretty much what motivation is like. You fill up your motivation "tank," it gets you through a certain period of time, and you know that periodically you'll need to refill it.

In fact, it's pretty much like anything we need to periodically redo. We take a shower every day and never complain, "Oh come on, I just took a shower yesterday." I've never once felt resentful that I need to reapply deodorant every day. It wears off. Of course I need to reapply.

Motivation is just like that. It wears off and you need to regularly "reapply" it. 

Every once in a while, when I feel like my motivation to do Bright Line Eating is slacking off, I take some time to really, deeply, fully reapply it. I listen to a bunch of BLE videos or coaching calls, I take a day off for full self-care (mediate, walk in the woods, soak in the tub), or read some sober blogs (I don't have trouble swapping out "alcohol" for "sugar" -- for me they're pretty parallel).

Thinking about motivation this way makes it a lot easier for me to stick to the tools that help refill my tank.

[Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Bright Line Eating or Susan PeirceThompson]